Bow Bow-director Pradeep Kilikar: The performance of the dogs was appreciated

Director Pradeep Kilikar is busy with the pre-release work for his upcoming film, Bow Bow, when we catch up with him. "We are planning to release it in six languages, so there's quite a lot to do," says Pradeep, who adds that the film is not simply dubbed in the different languages, and so, the makers have applied for censor certifications in each language. "We had to reshoot scenes involving number plates and boards in regional languages. Thankfully, there is very little dialogue." The last 30 minutes of the film, he tells us, only has rerecording. "But it will be quite emotional."

Apart from the four South Indian languages, the film will also be out in Hindi and Bengali. "We are looking at releasing the film first in South India, and in the North after the end of monsoons," says Pradeep.

Bow Bow, which has won awards at various international film festivals, is about the emotional relationship between a five-year-old child and his dog. "The film features three dogs in the lead — a labrador, a beagle and an indie dog. They are treated the same way a human character would be, and each of them has different characteristics," says Pradeep. 

He adds that Bow Bow will be different from other animal-based films. "You will not see sequences where the animals indulge in fights or other unbelievable scenes. It's an emotional story that captures the travel of the dogs with the boy," says the director. The challenge, he adds, was to make the dogs emote. "The dogs had to portray various emotions. For instance, if the boy is sad, the dogs had to show the sadness. At the same time, we wanted the film to be realistic, so we didn't employ CG or use tricks such as mind voices. So we're really pleased that those who saw the film praised the acting of the dogs."

The director is glad they got experienced dog trainers for the film. "We could only shoot when the dogs and the kid were in the mood to work. The whole unit had to work around this, but they were very cooperative. Thanks to that, we were able to wrap up the film in a little over a month."

Pradeep is certain that the film will cater to the family audience, who he feels are starved for good films. "More than just being a kids film or an animal film, Bow Bow will be an important film to watch for parents. The response I got at various film festivals has only made that belief stronger."